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Chengdu: The Cradle of Sichuan Cuisine
Chinese Food in China, Hong Kong, and/or TaiwanSummer Volume: 2006 Issue: 13(2) page(s): 5, 10, 32, 33, and 34
In the old days, these dishes were reserved for the holidays. Today, China is an emerging economy. How have these economic changes transformed the food? How have they changed life styles? What about the cuisine? With these questions in mind, I returned to Sichuan and my hometown of Chengdu and sought some answers. I also took some photographs, some of which are shared with those reading this issue of Flavor and Fortune.
After my first week back, everyone I met, be they friends, relatives, college or high school classmates, or chefs, proudly told me that Chengdu is rated as one of the best cities in China in which to live. Why? Lifestyles are laid back, travel opportunities convenient and easily possible, and the food considered gourmet. Almost everyone lives in their own beautifully decorated apartment, something one could not have imagined twenty years ago. I was born and raised in Chengdu, yet every time I return, I have trouble finding the street where I used to live. This time, once again, I felt as if the entire city had been rebuilt. The fields I used to pass every day on my way to work have disappeared. They are replaced by streets I never saw before. Ten years ago when I came back to Chengdu, only a few of my friends had cars. Today almost every one of them, as well as the instructors of the culinary school, have their own personal car. I was also told that the number of private vehicles in Chengdu is ranked third highest, after Beijing and Shanghai. This certainly is convenient; but it does add to traffic congestion.
The years we craved for meat and fat seems to have never existed. The younger generation has no knowledge of them; and in fact find that it to believe. Today, food supplies are so plentiful that huge supermarkets have popped up everywhere. In my youth, I do not remember even one supermarket. I do recall seeing foods on the street, sold by small vendors, but not as extensive as most are today. Both dry and fresh foods are plentiful on ever so many of Chengdu’s streets.
This wide array leads to the brilliant use of these chili products. For example, chili oil can be the signature of Sichuan food. Other regions do not make it nor use it as do the people of Chengdu. This shiny silk-like red oil can be found in every family’s home and in every restaurant kitchen in the Sichuan province. It is made of dry chilies lightly roasted, ground, and then mixed with thermally hot vegetable oil. This allows the spicy flavors to fuse into the oil. This spicy flavor is completely different from chili powder Sichuan pepper, called hua jiao, is the dark- reddish berry of a prickly ash tree. Its taste can be described as a tingling numbness on the tip of the tongue. It is a perfect combination with hot chilies. This spicy mouth feel satisfies the Sichuanese palate. They people of this province can not live without it. French chefs use butter and Italian chefs use wine. Sichuan chefs, bold and skillful, create wonderful hot and spicy dishes with chili oil, fresh chili, dried chili, and Sichuan peppers. These signature flavors will always be at the base of Sichuan food.
I also noticed other regional foods increasing in influence. Not only are Guangdong (Cantonese) and Beijing (Peking) cuisines found on menus, but delicacies from counties around Chengdu are making increased appearances. The reason for this is the population of Chengdu is changing. Now, almost half are outsiders, folks not native to this city. The following three restaurants visited help explain these new influences. I call them: The new Sichuan cuisine. YANFU-RENJIA, or The House of Salt Well is at 63 North Kehua Road in Chengdu; phone: 28-85230336 is the first of these. This very elegant restaurant serves Zigong style food. Zigong is a city two hundred miles from Chengdu. It is famous for its well-salt, and considered the capital of salt wells. The food in this city tastes stronger, saltier, and hotter than most Chengdu dishes. Heavily flavored with dried chili peppers, the dishes here provide notable contrast to the cuisine of Chengdu which pays careful attention to exact balance between hot and salty, and refined and delicate.
From a seemingly ordinary glass jar of pickles come pink radishes, green stemmed lettuce, and yellow young ginger. Some also have white chicken feet and shiny fish skin. I have seen pickled vegetables all my life and do make my own in upstate New York where I now live, however, never have I seen pickled chicken feet and fish skin. After tasting these unique delicacies, I discovered the chicken feet have been boiled, deboned, and cooled before entering their pickling brine; likewise the fish skin. These delicacies are so very good! HONG-ZHAO-BI or the Red Wall Restaurant is at 363 Shuhan Road in Chengdu; phone: 28-87570002; it is the second of these restaurants, and is in a very modern building, has floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and stylish interior decor. The large dining room has potted plants around the tables offering some privacy; and the food here is considered modern Sichuan with traditional flavors. One dish exemplifying this is their Stone Cooked Catfish with Dry Chili. Its deep black platter is filled with sauce, chili oil, some red hot chilies, and green cilantro. Diners use chopsticks to take out pieces of sliced catfish so tender, they instantly melt in your mouth.
The Roast Duck served at Red Wall is a combination of Beijing and Guangdong-style cookery. Typical Beijing Duck is roasted without any marinated flavor. It is brushed with maltose then hung to dry the skin. After roasting, the duck is sliced, then served with hoisin sauce and scallions. For each diner, the meat is wrapped in a paper-thin pancake. Guangdong Roast Duck is marinated with wine and salt, an important step before the duck is roasted and basted. A special liquid containing salt, wine, five spice powder, and stock is poured in the cavity of a Guangdong Roast Duck. As a result, the meat will be very flavorful but the skin not as crispy as it is in Beijing duck. The skin of Chengdu Roast Duck we had here was crispy, the meat was very tasty, and the flavor and texture were excellent. We enjoyed this restaurant's Stuffed Three Treasures. The main ingredients are stuffed bitter melon, a common summer vegetable in both the Sichuan and Guangzhou provinces, stuffed eggplant, and stuffed red bell peppers. Some might call this a Guangdong dish topped with Sichuan sauce. It tastes a little sweet and salty and it is mildly hot. MAO WU RESTAURANT is at 10 Tianhui Town in Shuangliu County, Sichuan. This third restaurant illustrates this point. It is some twenty to forty minutes from downtown Chengdu in a very small town on the side of a highway. We found it there under its name-sign, which means straw hut. In the front yard, the first thing that comes into view is a forty-inch diameter wok filled with boiling broth, pork ribs, and chicken. When we arrive, the restaurant is full. Luckily we find an empty bamboo table and pull over a couple of bamboo chairs. Before we sit down, a waitress arrives with broom and dust pan to sweep bones left under the table by previous customers. There is no menu. Another waitress arrives with pencil and student notebook in hand. We ask, what do you have? She starts to recite: Pork Ribs in Gravy, Fresh Ham with Gravy, etc. We had been told the best dish here is Pork Intestine with Gravy. The Chinese love intestines in various ways--simmered, fried, also stewed with potato. I have not eaten these foods for the seventeen years since leaving Chengdu. Since returning to my hometown for only two weeks on this trip, I already tasted Stir-fried Pork Livers, Chicken Gizzard with Gravy, and Beef Tripe in Hot Oil. The Stir-fried Pork Livers are especially delicious. It surprises me that I forgot how great they taste. Many Chinese believe eating organ meats nourish the same organ in their body. The food served at Mao Wu is common and traditional, the flavors reflecting typical Sichuan-style foods. Although the dining room here is not stylish and there are no table clothes nor napkins, the satisfaction on every customer’s face shows. As some of the above indicate, there are new dishes on menus in restaurants in Chengdu. I did notice three things that have not changed. First is the basic flavors of Sichuan food, the tingling hot and spiciness which earns hundreds and thousands of diners considerable satisfaction. Second, the serving style is the same. Regardless of whether in a restaurant or at home, foods are shared family style, and dishes arrive on large platters or in big bowls. In a restaurant when two people sit face to face, there are usually three dishes to share. Most often these might include a whole fish, a plate of stir-fried pork, and a bowl of tofu. Home style food has not changed that much either. Thirdly, I believe that culinary skills for housewives or husbands have not improved much, probably because cooked food is so inexpensive in Chengdu. It seems that most people are more interested in being gourmands than in being home chefs. At food markets there is a new section called 'Plated food-—Prepared dishes.' These are for customers who work the whole day and have no time nor desire to prepare their own dinner. This solution reduces washing and cutting involved in preparing family meals. I also see many deli-like departments at each of the food markets I visit. I look at them and find Spicy Spring Bamboo Shoots, Pan-fried Tofu Salad, Fresh Lima Bean Salad, etc. How different they are compared to a New York deli, or the deli section of a New York supermarket.
What follows are my recipes, rewritten for you in the style of this magazine. They and information in this article are part of a book soon to be published. This information which follows will be used in this forthcoming book; I do hope you will look for it.
The second recipe, Stone Cooked Fish Filet, indicates that though the Chinese love to cook fish whole with skin on and bone in, some restaurants and homes now use sliced fish fillets. They also use shiny rocks preheated to cook the fish and preserve the temperature. No rocks, no problem. An alternate solution is offered. In the third recipe, the fresh chili is sharp, raw, spicy, and piquant; it shows a taste different from dry chili powder. During the past few years, crunchy fresh chili is a popular Sichuan chef’s favorite spice, and dishes can contain lots of them offering vivid color and fresh hot taste. Do be aware: Everyone does not eat all of them.
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